Friday, November 01, 2013

Get Rich From Your Blog

"Famous Blogger" Sarong Party Girl

There’s never been a better time to blog – and make money from it. That's what Australians are being told - but the "tips" for knocking a blog home-run don't jibe with what the 'big blogs" (and interactive sites like 'Drudge') really do: offer a MAGAZINE or CAFETERIA style presentation of links to other articles on a wide variety of topics. That's WHY HuffPo and Drudge Report are high-ranking moneymakers! Put on your thinking cap as you read what's coming in the lines to follow! My remarks/edits are in RED.

Tips for successful blogging

1. First, you need page views - a lot of them – and experts advise that to attract an audience you need to zero-in on a topic that appeals to a wide audience, such as interior design or baking. WRONG! Again, the MOST successful blogs are infoterias of edutainment! “Find a niche, because the blog arena is becoming more crowded,” says Dafnis. “And deliver fresh, new content on a regular basis.” According to a survey of more than 500 bloggers by online advertising network Nuffnang, only 11 per cent post once or more a day. So thrashing the keyboard as often as possible is one sure-fire way to stand out. Note: Nuffnang is heavily used by bloggers in Singapore and Malaysia.

2. Make sure your content isn’t just fresh, but useful – drawing readers again and again, adds blogger Darren Rowse. Note: Rowse is the EXCEPTION to the rule. He is NOT just a "blogger" - he is an internet addict who spends time thinking up ways to seduce visitors he attracts to his blogs.

3. Social media, according to Rowse, is crucial for boosting readership and attracting cashed-up advertisers. But there’s no point Instagramming if most of your readers are Pinterest-ed. “We survey readers to analyse where they’re gathering online,” says Rowse. “Are they on Twitter? Are they on Facebook? It gives us a sense of where we should be ‘hanging out’ and developing a presence.”

Too much ado about ROWSE, for reasons already mentioned!

Nikki Parkinson, founder of fashion blog Styling You, admits, “I wouldn’t even have a readership without social media.” The former journalist’s tips and tricks draw 66,000 unique users per month, and she’s amassed more than 10,900 ‘likes’ on Facebook and 9500 Twitter followers. “My agent can sell advertising because of those numbers.”

OK - we agree that twitter has power - facebook's may be dwindling, and i don't personally recommend it due to privacy and safety concerns.

A Sensis report found that 65 per cent of Australians use social media, including blogs, and tablet use increased from 18 per cent to 35 per cent between 2012 and 2013. “So it’s more likely that people will see advertisements on a mobile device than in print,” says Suzi Dafnis, CEO of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network and publisher of its award-winning blog, herBusiness. “Yes, people might be watching TV, but they still have their iPads in front of them.”
According to the 2013 Yellow™ Social Media Report (there's a link to a PDF at the bottom of this post, after the jump), Australians use social media at either end of the day; more people are accessing social media in the toilet (eeeew!) ; and social media use in the workplace has increased.

I would venture to say the numbers in the US are likely close

37 per cent of users check social media first thing in the morning (up from 33 per cent in 2012) - but also, the States have caught up with the rest of the world (save for dual sim card phones) when it comes to Smartphones: 49% of the entire U.S. population uses a smartphone. Four out of five smartphone users check their phones within the first 15 minutes of waking up. 80% of those say it’s the first thing they do in the morning. 79% of smartphone users have their phone on or near them for all but two hours of their waking day while most of us have it within reach on our nightstands.

42 per cent check it as the last thing they do before going to bed (up from 40 per cent in 2012)
6 per cent check social media while they’re in the toilet (compared to 5 per cent in 2012)
34 per cent of social media users now log on at work (compared to 30 per cent in 2012)

Not sure if it is still the case in 2013, but Mashable reported a 2010 study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research showed as many as one-third of women aged 18-34 checked Facebook when they first woke up, even before they went to the bathroom.

Make money from your blog

SELL ADVERTISING SPACE

Think... pop-ups. NO! NO! NO! Visitors HATE them! You can sell directly to brands, or through an advertising network such as Google Adsense or Nuffnang, where a team of salespeople do the work for you. YES use ad agencies and BANNER ADS but NEVER employ pop-ups or pop-overs! Darren Rowse earned “well over $1 million” through Adsense. I REPEAT - ROWSE is NOT an ordinary blogger!TEXT LINK ADS ARE GREAT! I use them extensively - an easy way to add extra $$$ to your blog income. oh and by the way, DO NOT publish a blog income report. That is the singlemostBIGGEST MISTAKE A BLOGGER CAN MAKE!

GET WITH THE AFFILIATE PROGRAMEach time a user clicks on a product advertised or endorsed on your blog and buys that product, you score a small commission. I agree.

PEN SPONSORED POSTSBrands will pay you to write blog posts that look like blog posts but aren’t blog posts. They’re ads. Nikki Parkinson makes 65 per cent of her income this way. Be sure to disclose that you’ve published a sponsored post. Hah? Sponsored posts are SO over - as are guest-posts!

Nothing irks blog readers (blogders) more than some idiot who sends out a tweet with a catchy headline that links back to a blog that only has a link to another person's blog. A big time-waster!

The worst offenders appear to Malaysian bloggers. Twitter prohibits re-tweeting the same crap over and over again, but they circumvent the rules and manage to get away with it. They also publish ads disguised as posts.

There's another annoyance that is resurfacing: super-annoying popup ads that completely take over computers that open them.

I had an experience with one of these intrusive ads when I was writing the old "Capital Region People" blog. Secretly piggybacked on a widget there came a popup ad so cleverly disguised it took three people to finally figure out the source. The widget that injected it had been on my blog for about four months, so it wasn't immediately apparent that it was the source.

How to pinpoint and remove an offending widget? Go to your template and one at a time, remove and then re-add the code for every widget and badge on your blog. Unless someone has managed to break into your account and add malicious code (usually happens on WordPress) you'll eventually find the pest, and then be sure to alert other bloggers! Don't hide your head in the sand or take honest inquiries the wrong way!

High PR, Google & Bing, etc.

Be easier to find on search engines - not only should you think about the specific words users would type into a search engine to find your content and include those keywords in any post: look for what's TRENDING on Google, twitter, facebook, InstaGram, LinkedIn, etc. If it is drawing traffic, your blog should be covering it. If you hit a brick wall, THINK - what would YOU be typing into a search engine bar to learn more about a specific topic or personality?

Search for your blog on different browsers, such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Different browsers detect your site differently, so tweak your content until it ranks well on the most popular browsers.

Google can ban bloggers from their index for “illicit” behaviour like spamming or loading your pages with irrelevant keywords. Follow the guidelines atsupport.google.com/webmasters.

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